A quick review of College Football 25 after playing it for way too long in 1 day

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thank you so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us some of your time.

I am not proud to admit that I paid an extra $30 to play College Football 25 three days ahead of schedule. Technically, the game has not yet been released, but with early access, some folks could play on Monday. I was one of them.

And, boy, let me tell y’all: I had an absolute blast. I started playing on Monday after dinner, around 6 p.m. The next thing I knew, the street lights were on outside and my clock said midnight.

Did I stop there? You be the judge of that. Just know the inner-teen in me who hadn’t seen this game did not want me to stop playing.

READ MORE: CFB 25’s top 100 players

The game is incredible. If you’ve been a longtime fan of the franchise, fret not. It plays almost exactly how you remember it. I played it on PS5.

The gameplay felt incredibly smooth and realistic. I started playing mini-games to get the hang of things and they were incredibly useful — especially all of the QB drills. When you play the QB drills, by the way,  make sure you pick a good quarterback. That’s extremely important.

There are drills for each position on the field, too, so it doesn’t stop there. I didn’t complete all of them, but it took me around three hours to get through the offense drills.

There were some annoyances on my part as far as controls go because it adopted some of Madden’s button functions. For example, pump faking on the old NCAA games was L1. Now, you’ve got to double-tap the receiver’s button to fake the pass.

I haven’t touched Dynasty Mode yet — I’ll probably save that for this weekend. Instead, I started with Road to Glory and made it as hard as possible.

I picked the two-star recruit build and started as bench QB at Old Dominion. I basically put the setting on “Elden Ring but make it football.” My rating started at 60. It took me a full season to become a starter. I had to literally earn everything — this isn’t one of those modes where you get promoted just because you’re playing the game.

Along the way I got a couple of NIL deals! They impacted my rating, too, which was a good bit of functionality to add to the game. The transfer portal does exist, too. In the offseason, you get a chance to make your move. I probably will next year. My team stinks, man.

I don’t have a full rating for this one yet because it’s still so early, but this game seems as awesome as I thought it would be.

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The Home Run Derby was fun!

I’ve got to hand it to baseball, man. They know how to put on a good home run derby. Even the terrible national anthem was fun.

The new format had me a bit squeamish at first. I didn’t like the idea of an untimed bonus round after a timed round with a pitch limit. But, as it turns out, it added some drama to the event!

Things came down to the wire between Teoscar Hernandez, who eventually won, and Bobby Witt Jr. He came so close to tying things up on his final out. Agonizingly close, as our Cory Woodroof describes it.

Bobby Witt Jr. was THIS close to tying it pic.twitter.com/R0EAjGnKs4

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 16, 2024

That’s brutal. But it’s also fun! This was fun. Don’t change this format, MLB. You’ve got a good thing going.

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SKIIIIIIIIP?!?

After seeing Skip Bayless over the last eight years of FS1 doing Undisputed, it sounds like he may be on the move.

Our Tyler Nettuno has more on this potential shakeup:

“Bayless, one of the biggest names in sports media, left ESPN in what was seen as something of a coup back in 2016. He had previously hosted the show “First Take” for the network from 2007-16.

Now, he’s reportedly a free agent again.

Glasspiegel reports that the show has seen a dip in ratings since Sharpe’s departure following the 2023 NBA Finals. After taking several months off, the program returned with a new format that featured a rotating panel of guests joining Bayless.”

Watching that show come apart after Sharpe’s departure has been fascinating. Bayless is still Bayless — you know what you’re getting with him. But no personality has matched him. It started off chaotic and has been that ever since.

We’ll see where Bayless lands next, if he lands anywhere at all. He may retire and ride into the sunset after such a long career on television.

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Quick hits: Jaylen Brown’s Bronny James take … Five things on Kenny Bednarek … and more

— Jaylen Brown seemed to have quite a bit to say about Bronny James while sitting at NBA Summer League. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.

— Mary Clarke has everything you need to know about U.S. track star Kenny Bednarek ahead of the Olympics.

— In light of the awful national anthem we had to sit through for the derby, here’s Charles again with the five worst anthem performances ever.

— Nick Chubb squatting 600 pounds is insane. Just ridiculous. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.

— The Dolphins said their stadium suffered “significant damage” after the Copa América disaster. Here’s Andrew Joseph with more.

— Nick Saban being rejected by a grandma at SEC Media Day is hilarious.

That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you! Have a great one. Peace.

-Sykes